EVOLUTION OF MAN 179 



Believing then that, in spite of all deterrent influences, 

 both natural selection and sexual selection do operate slowly 

 to produce modification in innate character, let us ask again 

 the question : Can we so control this evolution that it will be 

 in desirable directions, and, if so, how can it be controlled? 



Let us elevate the standards of public opinion by every 

 means in our power, and then natural selection and sexual 

 selection, which are greatly influenced by public opinion, 

 will secure the evolution of the race. The progress will be 

 slow, painfully slow, but it will be real. This does not mean 

 that we shall cease trying to improve individuals. Each 

 individual, who is led to a more desirable attitude toward 

 life, will act as leaven in the community in which he lives, 

 raising somewhat the standards of the whole community. I 

 believe that in the continued influence of Jesus we find the 

 greatest force tending to the improvement of the individual 

 character and to the elevation of public opinion, and so to 

 the evolution of mankind in desirable directions. 



Improvement in social conditions, even though reached 

 through improved education, generation after generation, 

 rather than by advancing the innate qualities of the race, is 

 of course a most worthy object for which to labor, and it is 

 comforting to find that there is hope that such efforts may, 

 in the course of thousands of years, improve also the innate 

 fibre of the race through the effect which the advance of 

 public opinion will have upon natural and sexual selection. 

 To those who have faith in immortality, work for the 

 improvement of the individual assumes added importance 

 irrespective of its relation to evolution. 



We have referred to the relative importance of sexual 

 selection, choice in marriage, in the evolution of mankind. 



